New Horizons will come closest to the dwarf planet on July 14A NASA spacecraft has emerged from hibernation in preparation for completing its nine-year, 2.9-billion mile journey to observe Pluto from up close, the space agency said.
Sending its signal at the speed of light, the New Horizons ship beamed a report down to Earth that it was back in active mode as of Dec. 6.
'Technically, this was routine, since the wake-up was a procedure that we'd done many times before,' said Glen Fountain, the mission's project manager. 'Symbolically, however, this is a big deal. It means the start of our pre-encounter operations.'
After tests early next year, the spacecraft will collect data and images about Pluto and its surrounding moons. It will come closest to the dwarf planet on July 14.
Entities 0 Name: Pluto Count: 2 1 Name: Earth Count: 1 2 Name: NASA Count: 1 3 Name: Glen Fountain Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1G5MZam Title: Sleepy space probe New Horizons awakens for close-up with Pluto Description: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is the first probe sent to Pluto, and it's scheduled to arrive in July 2015. This is an artist's concept of the spacecraft flying past Pluto. (CNN) -- Three billion miles away from Earth, in an unchartered slice of our solar system, a small space probe is shaking off its deep sleep and getting ready to become the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moons.
Post a Comment for "NASA Spacecraft Wakes Up as It Approaches Pluto - TIME"